China Adoption Factsheet, Page 2

CHINA ADOPTION PROCEDURES: An agency may submit adoption applications directly to the CCAA for consideration. Included with the application should be all the required documents (you''ll find the list in documentary requirements) with authentications and translations. In addition, each application should indicate any preference for a healthy or handicapped child, preferred age and sex of the child, and, if desired, a specific Welfare Institute or geographic area of China in which you are interested. The CCAA will review the documents and advise the prospective adoptive parent(s) directly or through their U.S. licensed adoption agency, whether additional documents or authentication required.


Once the application for adoption is approved, the CCAA will then match the application with a child whose paperwork has been forwarded to the CCAA by a provincial Civil Affairs Bureau. Once a child is identified, the CCAA will send a letter of introduction about the child, photographs and a health record of the child through the U.S. adoption agency to the prospective adoptive parent(s). Questions about the child not answered in the material provided by the Chinese authorities may be relayed through your U.S. licensed adoption agency or by you directly to the CCAA.

To finalize the adoption, the prospective adoptive parent(s) need to travel to China to complete the process. It is important to contact the U.S. Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services in the Department of Homeland Security early in the process; you must have an approved I-600A before proceeding to China.

After the CCAA has advised you or your U.S. adoption agency in writing that your application is initially accepted for the adoption of a specified child, you may then respond through your adoption agency that you are interested in finalizing the adoption of the specified child. After indicating your acceptance of the child, you will then receive a formal notice from the CCAA to proceed to China. When the CCAA issues an approval notice ("Notice of Coming to China for Adoption"), this notice will bear the "chops," or red-inked seals of the CCAA. Prospective parents should have this approval notice in hand before departing for China. With approval notice in hand, prospective parents may then proceed directly to the city in China where the Civil Affairs Bureau with jurisdiction over the appropriate Children''s Welfare Institute is located. Thereafter, a series of interviews of the prospective adoptive parent(s) will occur; a contract will be signed with the Children''s Welfare Institute; the contract will be registered with the Civil Affairs Bureau; and a notarized adoption decree will be issued.

Parents will not be required to travel to Beijing for approval. The CCAA will have already forwarded a copy of the adoption approval notice to the locality where the child resides. Local Chinese Child Welfare Institutes, Provincial Chinese Civil Affairs officials and Chinese notarial offices will not process adoptions unless they have seen this notice. Thus any parents already in China without the approval notice will be required to obtain one from the CCAA in Beijing before the adoption process can be completed.

Americans adopting in China commonly meet with a notary in the provincial capital for an informal interview. A Chinese notary is not comparable to a notary public in the United States, but rather is an official with broad responsibilities. A translator supplied by the Child Welfare Institute is usually present. Meetings are held in the notary''s office in a non courtroom-like setting. Common questions asked of the prospective adoptive parent(s) include: Why are you adopting a Chinese child? Do you have any children now (either adopted or birth)? What is your family background? Why do you not have children? How can you assure us that the adopted child will be well treated?

In some cases a second interview at a registry office is conducted. Sometimes prospective adoptive parent(s) are asked to write a paragraph or a page on the reasons for the adoption and their plans for the child. Sometimes the local notary in the city where the Children''s Welfare Institute is located, meets with the parents and conducts a final interview in which questions similar to those posed at the provincial level are asked. Parents recently going through the process were told that Beijing''s approval had been sought and obtained for their adoptions, in accordance with the procedures of the CCAA.

Prospective adoptive parents may request to see the child before completing the adoption. Any remaining questions and concerning the child''s state of health or personal background after seeing the child should be addressed before completing the adoption. Prospective adoptive parents may wish to have the child examined by a physician on the U.S. Embassy or Consulate''s list of physicians before finalizing the adoption. It will probably not be possible under Chinese procedures for the prospective adoptive parents to take the child to a hospital in a city distant from the child''s location for examination. Before the adoption is finalized, the prospective adoptive parents have no legal custody or guardianship of the child, and may not be allowed by Chinese authorities to take the child anywhere.

After all interviews are completed, the actual adoption and completion of the contract, which includes making a fixed "donation" of around $3000-$4000 US dollars to the Children''s Welfare Institute, take place. This "donation" is NOT a bribe, but is required for the adoption and completion of contract for the institute. Prospective adoptive parents will be requested to sign an adoption agreement/contract with the welfare institute, then register the adoption at the provincial Civil Affairs Bureau, pay requisite Chinese fees and obtain a Chinese passport and exit permit for the child. The adoption process also includes signing an agreement with the person or institution putting up the child for adoption, registering in person with the Chinese Civil Affairs Bureau and carrying out the notarized procedures at the designated Chinese notarial office. When the notarial office in the child''s place of residence approves the adoption, that office issues a notarized certificate of adoption, a notarized birth certificate and either notarized death certificate (s) for the child''s biological parent(s) or a statement of abandonment from the welfare institute. The adoptive relationship goes into effect on the day of the notarization.

Once the adoption is final, the adoptive parents are responsible for the child. If the adoptive parents change their minds about the adoption after it is final, but before removing the child from China, the child may no longer be considered an orphan by Chinese authorities. As such, the child may not be eligible for medical service or educational benefits in China unless the adoptive parents formally notify the CCAA that they are relinquishing the child in a statement which is notarized by the appropriate local Chinese authorities. It should also be noted that such action might impede future adoption in China by the particular adoptive parents. Under no circumstances is it appropriate for adoptive parent(s) who have returned to the United States with a child, who enters the U.S. as a permanent resident alien, to simply return the child to China if they cannot keep the child. Rather, parents should contact their adoption agency or their state social services office for assistance.

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Credits: U.S. Department of State